Random Walk Thru Internet

Saturday, October 04, 2008

The Lehman collapse comes to my town: The San Mateo County investment pool lost $150 million, or about 5.6% of the total pool. The loss isn't spread evenly, and lawsuits are being discussed. San Jose Mercury News; Trading Markets.

Read Terry Pratchett's new novel,Nation. It isn't a Discworld novel, but it isn't set in our universe, either. Trousers of Time and all. He wrote much of it after his Alzheimer's diagnosis.

Monday, June 26, 2006

The thing about working in an adult ICU is that people die. Like, a lot. And then it is sad. And also you have to sign a lot of papers afterward attesting to the deadness. I would have thought before this that it would be relatively easy to tell when a patient was dead, but let me tell you--not so much all the time.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

I wanted to send out some sort of holiday greeting to my friends, but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my attorney today, and on his advice (and after $299 in attorneys fees) I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

What amusement park ride bounced Larry Eastland's brain loose , and how did he get the folks at the Wall Street Journal to get in with him? (The article alleges that liberals are aborting themselves out of existence.)

This is high level discussion? Every question possible was begged. [Fowler: Fowler defines "begging the question" as the "fallacy of founding a conclusion on a basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion itself.]

I didn't know where to start. Fortunately, I found someone who is a lot better prepared than I am.

Monday, June 28, 2004

So here I am in the heart of Silicon Valley--280 and Sand Hill Road being the next exit--and wireless service coverage sucks. Why? Because the good burghers of Portola Valley and Woodside--two of the most self-absorbed, won't put up cell phone towers "because they harm the esthetic ambiance." I kid you not.

Friday, June 25, 2004

1 ilunga [Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time. Note: Tshiluba is a Bantu language spoken in south-eastern Congo, and Zaire]